Pelepah Waterfall

For those complaining Kota Tinggi is too crowded, this is the alternative, with some walking of course. Sungai Pelepah is just about 30mins drive from Kota Tinggi town and the starting point of the trek at somewhere 10mins before reaching to Kota Tinggi waterfall & Resort. Can't tell you the exact spot as it is just some little clearing among the bushes and we just start walking in from there. From the start, it is just a very small little stream with water level only up to ankle level at most. It's walking in the river for the whole journey. Further upstream, there are some deeper pools which sometimes goes up to my shoulder level. Very nice and cooling, no sticky sweaty feeling that comes along with trekking in the jungle, just be prepared, some leeches around :)

Pardon me for the picture quality, those were taken with some cheap 35mm point and shoot film camera. No fanciful megapixel cameras invented at that time. The picture above is our final campsite for the night with the waterfall behind. There is a trail to go further up but we found no suitable campsite as nice as this. Our tents were pitched right next to the stream. Take a cup, scoop some water up, yum seng (Don't ask me safe anot 'cos I'm still alive up till now). Just beware not to go there during the monsoon season or you'll be washed away by flash floods.

On our way in. All our luxurious stuff in the pack, ready for a peaceful, enjoyable night at the most natural spa you can find in Malaysia.

Still on the way. Wash up if you feel sticky, the water is cool and refreshing.

The picture doesn't do this place justice. In actual, the place looks like a very nice landscaped garden. Beautiful oh beautiful.

Did I say nice again? Our campsite is on that empty patch of sandbank to the right. Click on the picture to see a larger image and you can see me sitting on the log. Those logs must have been washed down from the upper reaches during a horrible flashflood. Don't want to witness one, thank you very much.

Crystal clear water. No need for fridge. Just leave the canned cocktail and bottled wine in the water and enjoy later. Wasted there isn't any Erdinger during those days.

Dinner time. Bring out all we have, time to make a feast. Maggie mee in mess tin not an option.

What to do with 3 days off?

Had a long weekend off rest days from work last month in Oct. Got absolutely no idea what to do with it and have not been riding (on the nice twisty trunk roads) for quite a while. Joseph had left his bike under my care and went for a long holiday to Europe with his wife, I had the chance to take it for a spin up north. Pack some stuff on a Sunday morning and headed for the causeway. The selected route, as usual, is my favourite federal route 3. Destination, unsure, maybe Cherating, Kuantan or Telok Chempadak, WHEREVER I MAY ROAM.

Everything was uneventful on the Sunday morning all the way to Kota Tinggi, was trying to see if my fav wanton mee stall is back to business after the floods. Seems like lots of changes to the road directions and stalls layout around town. Confused, I exited out of the area before getting stucked in the pre Hari Raya shopping crowds.

The V-Strom's seat is very comfortable. My butt outlasted my bladder in the battle for endurance. Stopped somewhere near Jemeluang to throw water (buang air). Rode on to Mersing to look for lunch. Saw some big Singapore bikes riding around town, some rode past without batting an eyelid to wave hello or even smile. Too fast a bike given the big capcity of the bike (and ego?). Wanted to re-fuel when I saw a Shell station having V-Power (labelled by red coloured pump), which is not available everywhere. Took it out and was about to pump while the petrol kiosk uncle shouted something at me (I had music blasting inside my helmet). Turned off my MP3 player and listened him, fwah lucky, this is not V-Power leh but leaded petrol. Leaded petrol are used mainly by older engines and 2 strokes motorbikes. Joe, if you are reading this, "heng ah".

Road along the east coast. To the right is the South China Sea.

The road is nice after Mersing with some light traffic along the way. I was blasting them away and enjoying the music that almost rhyme to the riding. Almost a highway to heaven....

I still have not decided on where to stop and spend my night at, was having a short break at a petrol kiosk somewhere in Rompin. I remembered there's a place called The Shadow Of The Moon At Half Past Four in Cherating. I read about it in Michael Fong's book on his RTW (Round The World) trip. It was his very first stopover in the early part of adventure after starting off from the Causeway. This should be a nice and quiet place to stay away from the crowds. Afterall, this book and the trips he made were very much part of my motivation for riding, meeting strangers, new foreign faces....

Ok, target locked on, Cherating Lama. Rode on into Kuantan, a typical Malaysian bustling city with heavy traffic, but a least not as bad as K.L. Continued on route 3 up and I realised that I had passed by Swiss Garden Resort earlier. I was contemplating weather to ride up there with my wife last year but we chose Swiss Garden Damai Laut. Made a U-turn and went back the same way, wanting to check the place out. As it turns out, charges are a bit steep. It is located near villages along the main road, nothing much I can do at nite. Don't like happy hour in the hotel.

Wasted the time by riding all the way back to Swiss Garden and it's near late afternoon, but that's what is good about riding alone. OTOT, own time own target! The only thing grumbling now is my stomach, and I'm also feeling abit feeling. Didn't want to go on to Cherating today already. Tried my luck at Telok Chempadak, see anything to offer there anot. Not bad, nice beach (better than ECP lah), 24Hrs Mac, a few F&B outlets (Read: Beer).

As it seems, Hyatt there is having some promotional price due to low season. Comes to about the same as Swiss Garden. Hack it, at least I can take a walk out of the hotel at nite.

Took a walk out after a short nap.

Cherating Beach. Nice and clean. Walked around to the end of the beach where I had camped for 2 nites years ago after forgoing a trip to Berkelah waterfall due to heavy rain and flash floods. Had a simple dinner at one of the eatery and went looking for the rows of pub which i saw when riding in this afternoon. Pretty quiet place on a Sunday evening. Immediately my eyes locked onto the big ERDINGER sign outside one of the pubs and without hesitation, a 0.5L glass was served, hehe. Went back to hotel after that, thinking of the next destination for tomorrow and knocked out.

Buffet breakfeast at the hotel. Seems like only me and 2 or 3 other guest helping ourselves to their spread of variety. Very full and sleepy, which is nice.

Wanted to take a morning dip in the water but the sky is still overcast from the early morning showers and it looks cold, sure can wake me up after all the food. Better not lah.

Packed up and move out late morning. Decided to take the Karak highway and exit at Gambang to ride on route 12 to Segamat, passing Lake Chini. Decided to go Mount Ophir and maybe stay a nite at the resort there.

Towards K.L. The whole road to myself, only 1 or 2 Protons passed by.

Didn't take much pics after this cos riding all the way up to Segamat non-stop. Sad to say, it started to rain cats, dogs, tiger, lion when approaching Ophir resort. Mood cut by half already. No point staying indoor at the resort if wet weather all the way. So decided to call it a day and go home. Indeed, it is wet weather all the way back to Singapore.

Filling up at GP, wet, cold and hungry. Went looking for some hot and spicy food to fill up my stomach too.

Hindhede Quarry

This place is located just beside the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Used to be able to access it from the carpark from the bottom of Bukit Timah hill, a nong nong time ago.... Some monkeys decided to play some stunts and got killed in the waters and several incidents later, this place is closed to public and the entrance was fenced up.

A very nice place to spend a quiet weekend climbing in the afternoon away from the crowds, which very few such places exist here in tiny red dot. There are quite a number of nice climbing routes here with difficulty level suitable for beginners to the more hardcore climbers. These routes were all bolted mostly by the pioneer batch of climbers in Singapore in the late 80's. Wondering how does the place looks like now.

View of the quarry. The water are trapped in this disused quarry during rainy days and it is deep...

View from another angle, looking at the Singtel comm tower.





Norman, my climbing kaki.

Tom, from Hong Kong. Funny guy, lost contact with him.

Norman on a climb. (Forgotten which route)

Jacqueline on "Drowning Man".

Those were the days, those were the days. Did not get together very much with all my climbing kakis nowadays. Most of them are already married like me and some with childrens, and work commitements. Long-ed for a climb on a lazy weekend afternoon....

Templer Park

Nua-ed after surviving mid-week crisis. So just gonna do a short post on a trip to KL. Templer (not temple) Park is named after some British official during those colonial times and is just a stone throw away from the bustling city. What to do there? The usual thing, nature park, waterfall....


This limstone outcrop is Bukit Takun (about 300+ metres in height). Good for some full day of rock climbing.

Kanching (did I spell it right?) Waterfall

View from the left side.

All the way up to top...

This place is just about 30-45 mins bus ride away from KL. Took a public bus there and cost less than 1 ringgit.

"Adventure" day ride 26Apr'06

Joseph wanted to take a ride up to somewhere in Kluang to take a look see at some eco chalet there, thinking of organising a trip there for his clients. So we decided to make a trip up early Monday morning thru the causeway. Decided to set off a 7am, thinking that only the side of the casueway towards Singapore would have jams. Damn bloody wrong! We did not sense anything wrong while clearing Singapore immigration, but as soon as we ride out of it on onto the bridge, we're stucked. Shit, don't tell me now the all the workers go back home early in the morning too???


This is at the Singapore side of the causeway, just after the checkpoint. The problem is you see, the early morning traffic of workers/cub kias coming to work in Singapore is jamming up the whole damn bridge! Yes, even this side of it, against the traffic! It's basically "Cub Jam".
See the yellow Malaysian bus on the right, it go blocked by all the cubs so badly that the driver is trying to go against the traffic to avoid them, but no different. Cub power.

Those to the left of the pic were heading for JB but got stucked cos the bus did'nt move an inch. Even cub kias couldn't squeeze thru it, it's that bad. See the immigration officer in the middle? He's performing the "Moses parting of Red Sea" act, trying to get them to go back to the other side of the road, screaming and gesturing at them.

Getting better, made some "progress". Into the the mid of the bridge.

Bloody warm and sweating even in the cool morning air. Eventually we got around the bus obstacle course. Behind the bus there were still hordes of cub bikes face to face with us. I had to hold on to my horns (using their own tactics, haha) as I ride thru and got them to make way for us.

Before the JB immigration, at long last. Forgotten how long it took us, just glad that it's over. Take a breather first can?

Rode up all the way to the so called "chalet". Disappointing condition. Very run down.

Hungry. Wanton mee again. At Kluang. The most intresting part of the journey is only in the beginning maybe.

People of Malaysia....

Location where I'm stranded. Click map for bigger picture.

There are lots of news reports of robbery , kidnaps, snatch theft and whatever negative about Malaysia. It scares the holy shit out of many Singaporean. Some swear to stay away at all cost, they rather spend their higher valued Sing dollar at elsewhere more exotic.

While I cannot disagree that some parts of J.B. are unsafe even by their local standard, but that's ONLY at certain areas. If we knew that those places are unsafe then just avoid this place and visit other nicer places (aplenty in Malaysia). Don't tell me that there is no robbery or theft in other parts of the world? Or do we think that everywhere in the world should be as safe as in Singapore to be walking around the streets at nightfall? Try walking in the streets of Amsterdam at night for that matter.

Ok so much for the ding dong robbery....The above picture was taken at somewhere near Penggerang around 7pm. I am supposed to give Joseph a ride up to Telok Ramunia in the afternoon to check out the chalets at the seaside and then head back home the same day. Just as we were rushing back before dark, my bike started stalling. Knn forgotten to top up before starting the ride back. So there we were, stranded at the above location, in constant drizzling rain. Cock-a-Nathan.

As this road is not a frequently used road by most motorist, very little vehicles went past. Waited and waited and the following vehicles showed up :

1. A Singapore registered car - Waved them and got it going faster than ever..
2. An Malaysian army truck pulled up - The men asked what's wrong.."tank empty"..sorry but their truck uses diesel...
3. At last we thought we saw some headlights, but to our horror a group of Malay bikers on their Cubs heading towards us, "siao liao"........................................................................... "Bang, takda minyak lah"...Without hesitation, they brought Joseph away and came back with a mineral water bottle of petrol (as above helping with my re-fueling)

Initially I was a little worried when they brought Joseph away and I'm left all alone with the rest of their group ( there's about 6-7 of them). I can't really speak Melayu with them, only some broken Melayu but they were curious of my bike and giving it a good checking all over, haha. After the top-up we decided to head back to Sungai Rengit town to stay a night (the bottle of mineral water petrol is just nice to head back there.).

After this incident of at least 10 years ago, I realised that many of their local villagers are very people. There are very eager to talk to you, curious of you and your bike, and always ready to help out. That's why I always wave at them whenever possible passing by villages.
Please, our neighbours aren't what you thought it is.

You think, I thought, who confirm???

Trekking in Gunung Belumut's jungle

As my earlier ride mentioned, this is situated near the small town of Kahang. The next biggest town will be at Kluang where coach, rail and taxis are available. From JB, either get a train or coach to Kluang. Then from Kluang, negotiate with the taxi drivers to the base of Gunung Belumut. Some of them might not be willing to take you as it involves driving in sometimes 4WD road conditions thru oil palm plantations, depending on your negotiation skills.

Some pictures below are from the different trips that I have made, some with friends, some alone and occasional leading of groups.

The summit of Belumut.

Bird's eye view of the surrounding on top of the big boulder on the summit. Sometimes after a heavy downpour, we could hear sounds of gushing water from here. Should be coming from the nearby Sungei Yong waterfall as flash flood runs thru it.

Shelters built by the Orang Asli, the aborigines. They still lives and maybe hunt in the jungle here.

Taken on a solo journey. Heard some of my friends went up the summit earlier. So I packed up and try to rush in to reach the summit campsite before sunset.As there are reports on tiger killing a villager in this vicinity, the base of the mountain is very quiet with no signs of the weekend crowd at all, the image of a tiger appearing in my path keep flashing on my mind. Lots of running invloved (not possible to do it with the present me), did it in about 2hours from the base. Decided to collect some water at a detour off the track before reaching campsite near summit. Other than sounds of some insects and bird chirping occasionally, the place is dead quiet, from far I saw someone at the water source with his back facing me. Caught up with him and realised that it's Uncle Benny collecting water, he turned around and got a startled expression on his face as they are not expecting anyone up so late, hehe.

P.S. - as with all other shot of myself with part of my head cut off, this are mainly my solo trips and camera set on self-timer.

Campsite on the summit ridge. About 0.5km away from the summit (the dark silhouette on the right).

Breaking camp in the morning.

Wilson, good inpersonator of a wild boar in the jungle.

Our campsite near a waterfall in the mountain. Around 1 hour trek from the carpark. The crockeries were tied up and hung above ground to prevent big fat rats from stealing them away thinking there's food.

At the carpark waiting for the mini-van to pick us up. The professional photographer is Joseph trying to get the best angle for his shot.